House pets, such as cats and dogs, that are covered with hair are prone to be carriers of fleas and possibly other insects that reside in the hair covering of the animals. Removal and extermination of such fleas and the like from animals may be quite difficult but should be accomplished on a regular and frequent basis in order to prevent a major infestation.
There have been proposed various devices for facilitating removal of fleas and the like from both household pets and farm animals and most, if not all, are based upon a comb structure adapted to be passed through the hair of the animal and often including a receptacle from receiving insects combed from the animal, as in eary U.S. Pat. No. 506,643 to Price and U.S. Pat No. 656,990 to Marsh. Many insects, such as fleas, have very hard shells so that they are hard to exterminate by physical force and also they are very active so as to be difficult to grasp even though trapped in a receptacle. There has thus been proposed combs with materials for entrapping fleas or the like, as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,255,601 to Hare and an improvement thereon proposes the use of a curative, antiseptic or insecticidal solution on a sponge in a comb housing, as in U.S. Pat. No. 1,107,537 to McCann.
One of the major problems with devices of the type noted above is the sure removal of fleas or the like from animal hair that may widely vary in thickness and the sure and continuous transfer of such insects from a comb in the hair to a receptacle wherein they are exterminated.